[2][3][4] Garrett had wanted to play college football at the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA), but the relationship did not work out.

[4] Instead, he attended the University of Southern California (USC), where coach John McKay was creating an offense featuring the tailback.

[4] A two time All-American (including a unanimous selection in 1965), Garrett set numerous NCAA, Pac-8 Conference and USC records in his career by amassing a then unheard of 3,221 yards, while scoring 30 touchdowns.

[4] Garrett was awarded the 1965 W. J. Voit Memorial Trophy as the outstanding football player on the Pacific Coast.

[4] Garrett signaled the dawn of the "Tailback U" era, where USC produced a stream of top tailbacks including Heisman winners O. J. Simpson (1968), Charles White (1979) and Marcus Allen (1981), as well as Heisman runners-up Anthony Davis (1974) and Ricky Bell (1976).

[11] He is a member of The Pigskin Club of Washington, D.C. National Intercollegiate All-American Football Players Honor Roll.

So even though he had won the Heisman Trophy, he was not taken until the 20th round of the 1966 AFL draft by the Kansas City Chiefs (178th out of 181 players chosen).

[14] He played in the first AFL–NFL World Championship Game, now referred to as Super Bowl I, with the Chiefs after the 1966 season.

[18] His touchdown came on head coach Hank Stram's iconic 65 Toss Power Trap play call.

Overall, Garrett gained a total of 8,049 yards and scored 49 touchdowns (35 rushing, 13 receiving, 1 punt return).

[21][8] In June of 1970, after winning Super Bowl IV, Garrett announced he was going to give up football to play baseball for the Dodgers, a significant motivation being his wanting to be in Los Angeles.

After his final game of his first year with the Chargers, after running for 125 yards and scoring two touchdowns, he again stated he was going to retire from football to play baseball for the Dodgers.

[2] After his professional football career, Mike Garrett earned a Juris Doctor from Western State University College of Law in 1986,[7] but never took the bar exam.

In 2005, he allowed safety Darnell Bing who was at USC at the time to wear his retired number 20 for his senior season.

[34] Garrett retired from the position of Executive Director of the Athletics Department at Cal State LA in 2016, in light of claims made against the school for his using language in a sexist manner (such as babe or sweetheart) with women in his department.